Nina Marchuk a Ukrainian model who has just arrived in India dons the sari with ease for a catalogue shoot

As the clock strikes noon in a spacious apartment tucked away in a south Delhi bylane, eight girls scramble to tog up for a fashion catalogue shoot. Clad in high heels set off by skinny jeans and snug tops, the lissome twenty-something-year-olds have recently descended on the capital from countries like Brazil, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Russia.

They’re part of an international glamour brigade of models who, after traipsing around the globe, have decided India is the place to be.

Take Nina Marchuk. Even before she’s had a chance to figure out her new lifestyle in India, every day of the week spells fashion assignments for the 21-year-old Ukrainian who landed in Delhi in June. Having already worked in Turkey, China and Lebanon, Marchuk’s plan is to work her way across Asia.

“It is a breeze to work in India because all that matters here is a beautiful face and not an extensive portfolio,” she says with a smile. With her 5ft-9in willowy frame, clear skin and light grey eyes it’s not surprising though that she has already built up a thick portfolio.

Flip through her work diary and you can see a transformation — draped in demure saris for catalogues she could almost pass off as an Indian model. Besides that, Marchuk already has prestigious brands to her name — such as an ad campaign for Coke and a brief affair with the Indian catwalk at the Blender’s Pride Jaipur International Fashion Week.

Rupinder Sharma

Badau Rudolf wears the Pirates of the Caribbean look for a campaign Pix: Akash Dash

Marchuk’s flatmate, with whom she exchanges a few quick words in Russian, is a 20-year-old leggy model from Tashkent in Uzbekistan. The 5ft-11in Nadejda Vladimirovna has already notched up ramp shows with A-list designers such as Tarun Tahiliani and ad campaigns for Domino’s Pizza and Levi’s.

Marchuk’s enthusiasm seems to have rubbed off on her, as Vladimirovna sounds just as gung-ho about her Indian experience. Or you could simply attribute it to the fact that they have hit modelling jackpot and are constantly busy.

“As opposed to the one or two international faces that you saw on the ramps, there has been a 25 per cent-30 per cent jump in the number of youngsters from abroad in the last couple of years,” says choreographer Vidyun Singh. “With their body types they are eminently suitable for wearing ensembles that Indian designers are targeting for an international audience.”

Ironically, it is the dark haired Brazilians and East Europeans with Asian features who are giving the Indian brat pack a run for their money.

For instance, there’s Moufid Abdelaziz, a 30-year-old model from Curitiba, in south Brazil who starred in a Mango Slice TV commercial with Katrina Kaif and a print ad of Red Tape shoes.

“What works for me is my Indian and Arabic heritage. It is the reason I have been modelling here for three years now,” says Abdelaziz who is based in Mumbai. The going is good and he intends to extend his stay indefinitely.

Yes, surprisingly enough the men are also raking in the moolah.

Romanian model Badau Rudolf, within a period of two months, has already featured in magazines such as The Man, Maxim and Shoes & Accessories. The 6ft-2in model with his boyish charm is also looking forward to shooting for a few ad campaigns soon.

American model Liza Golden made her way to India after hearing about boom times here.

Or take the auburn-haired Evelyn Lakshmi Sharma who arrived in Mumbai from Germany two months ago. “My mother is German and my father is Indian, so I have always dreamed of seeing my country,” says the model who studied to be a translator but switched to modelling after working for three years in an international law firm.

Sharma has worked internationally with well-known brands like Samsung and Benetton. In India her first billboards are up in Nagpur and Raipur. “And soon my TV commercials will be airing, so watch out for a chocolate cookie ad and the launch of a brand new body lotion,” she adds.

But the international model scene is constantly in flux. The faces change every three to six months as fresh batches of models arrive to replace the ones who move out of India.

“It’s hard to pick the names that are top of the line. But there are models who do extremely well and may return,” says Ankit Mehta of Inega Model Management.

Nadejda Vladimirovna has already notched up ramp shows with designers like Tarun Tahiliani Pix: Rupinder Sharma

If international models are snagging deals, there’s also model placement agencies helping them scout for opportunities. Model agency owner Himanshu Bhasin points out the sudden growth of model consultant agencies in the last two years.

“I realised there was a gap in the market since there were not many at the point to take care of the careers of international models in India. So I decided to start Karma Models Management in early 2009,” notes Bhasin, a model himself.

From a more distant corner of the world, there’s the recently launched eight-month-old Eskimo Vie that is the Mumbai branch of Eskimo, an Icelandic model consultancy firm, and Anima Creative Management in Delhi that was started two years ago by models Gunita Stobe and Mark Luburic.

Besides that, there’s also Delhi-based Orange Model Management that is owned by Ukrainia model Alina Galushka. She’s also planning to open a new agency called Purple Management in Mumbai to keep pace with demand.

According to them, what works for international faces are fat dossiers of experience (read: assignments internationally) and a strong dash of professionalism.

Moreover, the foreigners often charge substantially less than established Indian names. “A foreign model can charge as little as Rs 30,000 for an assignment when she is starting off. Once she climbs up the charts, she may charge the client Rs 70,000-80,000. But the hassle-free temperament makes it click for her,” adds Bhasin.

A well-backed portfolio is obviously an added advantage. Look at Vladimirovna who has been modelling since the age of 14 and has ended up travelling across Asia to countries like Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. She has walked the ramps for designer houses like Chanel, Versace, Hugo Boss and Armani and her experience has given her a poise you do not see in most 20-year-olds.

Liza Golden, another 20-year-old, who has worked in diverse places like Kuala Lumpur, Prague, Australia, Los Angeles and New York, says it’s almost in her blood to adapt to a new culture.

Evelyn Sharma finds her comfort zone on the Indian circuit where curvy models are preferred over skinny ones

The American who has grown up in the states of Texas and New Jersey has already been featured in a gaggle of magazines — Elle, Marie Claire, Sportswear International, L’officiel, Femina, GQ — besides walking the ramp for fashion designers Gaurav Gupta and Tarun Tahiliani. She is prepping up for her next few assignments at the Lakme Fashion Week.

Rudolf, a former handball professional, who has criss-crossed his way across Hungary, Romania, China and Thailand has had a crack at fashion weeks internationally like the Budapest Fashion Week and the Beijing Fashion Week. One of the big assignments in his portfolio is an underwear show for Calvin Klein.

“It is strange for me to do an underwear show given that I have deep scars on my legs and knees from a coma-inducing motorcycle accident,” grimaces Rudolf. “But then usually organisers don’t give it a thought and at times even camouflage them cleverly.”

There are also youngsters who come to India with Bollywood’s big screens in mind. Some want to do a Giselle Monteiro (the Brazilian model of Love Aaj Kal fame). Sayonara, a Brazilian model, for instance, is all set to hit the big screen in a Rohan Sippy film.

“On our part, we help models by pushing them for cameo roles,” says Shilpa Malik, a model booker with Eskimo Vie, who urged Sayonara to try for the cameo role.

Don’t forget that these youngsters are the product of a go-global, small-world era. And when you talk to them their fascination with the Indian experience comes through.

Some like Abdelaziz soak in the ambience of living in Bandra West and pick up popular Hindi words to the tune of Arey baba. And Sharma spends her time blogging on her lifestyle in Mumbai.

Picking up nuances of Indian cooking is what Rudolf meanwhile does in his spacious Delhi pad that he shares with a handful of international students. He says: “There is warmth in India and it is surprisingly easy to get used to life here, even though the pace of life is slow.”

But Golden sums it up best: “There’s the world and then there’s India. It’s a crazy place but when it’s time to leave, you realise you’ll be dying to get back to the chaos.”